Richard Wright Discussion Questions

Hi all,

Apologies, but I only just connected to the class blog. Here are the discussion questions I should have posted before last week's class:

1) Richard Wright posits in White Man, Listen! that “the Negro American is the only American in America who says: ‘I want to be an American.’” Has this shifted since the time of Wright’s writing? Are there now other groups who see America as “something outside of him and he wishes to become part of that America”?

2) Wright speaks in broad terms concerning the elites of Asian and African countries - are Wright’s comments too removed from “everyday people” to have an impact? Similarly, are Wright’s thoughts expressed too broadly to have impact? Wright’s audience seems to be those in positions of power on both sides of the discussion (white Europe/colored Asia and Africa).

3) While reading Wright, I thought of James Baldwin’s David in Giovanni’s Room. I thought that David’s behavior reflected in a sense a psychological reaction of an oppressed person. Through this lens, Giovanni’s Room becomes not an anti-gay piece of literature, but rather a portrait of the result of a type of oppression and thus a criticism of the oppression rather than the oppressed. Would you agree or disagree with these thoughts?


Again, apologies! No disrespect intended.

Eric